Escape
by Solitaire Alliteration
Summary: Betrayed and hunted almost to extinction, one very familiar flock of bird-kids seek refuge in magic when there is nowhere left to go. MR/BLEACH/NARUTO CROSSOVER.
1. Prologue

In the glow of the computer's electronic light, Valencia sighed and rubbed a crick out of her neck. She had been researching for over thirteen hours straight for the fourth time in as many days, but it was finally going to pay off.

Idly, she wondered where Max was, then shrugged the thought off. Her daughter came and went as she chose. Dr. Martinez had long since decided that it was better if Max's enemies knew as little about Max's habits as possible; five years hadn't erased her memories of being held captive by the evil Mr. Chu.

As she scrolled down the page a small, bright smile illuminated Valencia's pale, drawn face, brining life back into it. With a little bit of luck, soon her daughter wouldn't have to worry about being hunted, experimented on, and being unaccepted by society. Soon, she would find a way to get her out.

-----------------

I eyed my mom uncertainly. Sure, I might be living proof of the wonders of science, but this was another thing entirely. What Mom was saying was impossible.

"And so," she concluded, "You will then be transported to a parallel universe and be entirely safe!" She beamed at us, hope shining in her eyes. Hope that I was going to trample on like an elephant on a mouse.

"Mom, I'm glad you are all gung-ho to do so much research and stuff for us," I started, "but I really don't think that this is gonna work." While I totally understood why she wanted us somewhere safe, I didn't see why she wanted to go to such lengths to do so.

After all, there was no guarantee that this would work. Even in the stories Mom cited as evidence, this had never actually happened, merely been mentioned as an afterthought. I would never risk my flock's safety on a 'Maybe this will work.' Not any more.

Nudge turned to me, her lips pulled down in a pleading pout, puppy-dog eyes manned and ready. "Please Max? It couldn't hurt anything and we're already in Japan so we don't need an airplane and it sounds really really fun and could we pleasepleasple-"

I cut her off. "No." When I had agreed to move to Japan and lay low while Mom worked as a vet, I had no clue that there was a hidden reason Mom had wanted us to be here.

I turned to my mom and said, "Thanks for trying Mom, but this isn't going to work." And with that I turned and walked away, trying desperately not to see the hurt look I knew was on her face.

As I walked out the door and into the cold winter air, the Voice whispered to me, "Caution is advisable, Max... You will need to leave eventually. Keep an open mind." Yeah, real specific, as usual.

Unconsciously my gaze wandered to the 'Wanted' poster on a telephone pole. I thinned my lips and walked away before I could get a good look at it. It didn't matter if I saw it or not. I knew whose face was on that poster. Mine.

Half a decade had passed since my glory days as a fourteen year old. As long as we had the back story of an abusive childhood, Itex had been in the wrong in the eyes of the public. Suddenly though, the year I turned sixteen their opinion had changed. Now my flock and I were the freaks.

Deciding we were "unnatural" they turned to the mega companies for guidance. And of course, Itex was right there to hold the public's hand. In only a month, wanted ads were out up. Anything with a defect was to be culled, and us mutants were no longer safe. It's been that way for three years.

One time I had let my attention wander, and as a result, Total had been captured and killed. I remembered that day perfectly, the details burned into my brain. Angel and Gazzy had been playing with Akila and Total's year old pups when the news came. Angel couldn't stop crying for a week.

Angel shook me out of my depressed funk. "I think we should do what Dr. Martinez said," she told me seriously. "I don't want you to have to be sad and afraid any more."

Fang came up from behind me. "You should do it."

"Tough luck," I muttered. "This isn't your decision." I sped up my pace.

"Oh great," Iggy muttered. "Now she's going all emo-leave-me-alone."

"Shut up," I growled. I tried to glare daggers at him, but, yet again, his sightlessness came in handy- I had never been able to properly intimidate him. A stifling sense of being watched spread over me and I automatically did a visual 360, looking for any danger. My eyes widened and I grabbed Angel's hand and started walking even faster.

Right behind us was a team of Flyboys. Those things were everywhere now. I swore that you could even see them in homeless shelters. And, unfortunately for my flock, thay had recognized us.

"Shoot! They saw us!"

My flock began hauling it now. Slowly, we began to gain a lead- Flyboys had never been able to move very fast on land, and they had hardly been improved on at all.

As I dragged my family into an alley, I realized something. We had left someone very, very important behind.

"Where did Gazzy go?"

We had left the Gasman at my mom's office.

"Dang it!" I hissed. Quickly looking around for civilians, I pulled Angel out of the alley and took off at a dead sprint.

As soon as we reached the room I stuck my head in and froze. There was an unearthly turquoise glow emanating from a perfect circle. Tripping over my own feet in my hurry, I caught only a glimpse of a spiky haired silhouette before the light vanished and the figure with it.

Gasping for breath, muscles tight with fear and adrenaline, I asked my mom, "Where's the Gasman?"

A brittle smile passed through her lips. "I gave him what he wanted," she said. "I sent him to a place where all of his enemies are dead."

"What?" The words fell out of my mouth. "That's.... impossible."

"Oh, believe me. It definitely happened."

I slid to the floor, shell-shocked. Beside me I heard Iggy start to yell, but I couldn't make out the words. My mom, my rock, had gone behind my back and sent Gazzy to God only knew where. This had never happened to me before. Jeb, yes. Dr. Martinez, no.

I was forcefully yanked to the present by Iggy's demand.

"Let me go to the same place as him," he growled. "Gasman needs me."

A growled "NO" was on the tip of my tongue. This was blatant insubordination. Why did they suddenly think that they could just do whatever they wanted to? I had been doing a damn good job leading them and, honestly, I deserved a medal for being a good leader and mother figure through out my turbulent adolescent years. But.. My stomach churned. Gazzy was a part of my flock. I couldn't let him down as I had Total, insubordination or not.

My traitorous mother turned to me. "Well Max? What's it to be?" Her lips were still turned up in that smile, mocking me. Mocking my ability- or was it inability?- to lead my flock. Oh well. Everyone knew my flock had me wrapped around theair little finger.

"Isn't it obvious?" I snapped at her. "C'mon, guys. We're following Gazzy."

I pulled myself to my feet. Striding over to the circle, I let a sour expression pass over my face when I saw how eagerly the flock scrambled in preparation to leave Earth. It was almost as if they were excited, happy even, to be venturing into a _very_ great unknown. But... They would be safer there... No. My mom had gone behind my back to do this. This was not okay.

"It'll be alright," Fang told me quietly. "We'll find the Gasman and maybe stay a while and it'll be okay Max."

I snorted. "Feh." Who knew an ice block could be so touchy-feely?

"You'll see." He turned away from me. This was bringing back memories from when Fang had decided that we should go and live on a deserted island. Just like now, he had thought that it would be best to escape reality and let the world rot.

"Alright," Dr. Martinez said. "We are all set and clear to go. Now let me just power this up.... and...."

That same bright blue-green light filled my eyes. I envisioned where I wanted to be- _"withgazzywithgazzywithgazzy"_ when suddenly a squad of Flyboys marched into the room. Horror-struck I stared at my mom, incapable of moving. This was definitely not supposed to happen. How had they found us? And what was going on?

Valencia Martinez gave a last sad, sad smile to her ungrateful daughter. This would surely turn out for the best. Failure, after all, was not an option. "All systems clear and... Go."

As I was blinded by the flashing light I barely managed to make out a glimpse of my mom being struck down by a Flyboy. A thought flew across my mind, carried on wings of guilt.

"_I want to make my mom proud."_

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Greetings, Earthlings. This is my first story, so what do you think? I, uh, relize that Max is OOC, but first of all, this is five years after the begining of the series, so she is entitled to some change. Also, she has been living on the run for most of her life now, and thirdly, after she failed at keeping Total safe, I think that Max is the kind of person who would develope a couple of complexes.

Two last things. One, as you have probably already guessed, this will be a crossover. Two, this story is not compliant of Fang or of any progress made in Fang and Max's relationship. More on that later.

Sincerely, Solitaire Alliteration


	2. Chapter One Naruto

Iggy blinked his eyes uselessly, disoriented. The trip had been bumpy and _really_ freakin' uncomfortable. It had felt as if he was being squished into an extra small dog crate.

In addition, his head was ringing with silence. Why the heck wasn't Max doing her usual leaderly stuff?

Iggy reached around and felt the weirdly warm soil. "Max?" he called out. "Nudge?"

"Right here," Nudge replied. Her eyelids flickered, adjusting to the harsh, brilliant light of the golden sun. Scanning for the others, her warm mocha skin paled, terror grasping her heart in its icy fingers.

"Where's Max?" Iggy asked again, getting agitated. His head snapped toward the small whimper Nudge let out. "Nudge? What's wrong? _Where are they?"_

Nudge whispered, "They... they're not here Iggy. They didn't make it."

"Oof," I grunted as I landed flat on my butt. Raising my voice, I yelled, "Report!"

"Here," came Fang's monotone, and then, a split second later, Angel said, "Present. And, Max, we're not alone."

"Of course we're not. Iggy and Nudge are here too."

Angel sucked air in through her teeth. The very sound sent my stomach spiraling downwards. Teeth-sucking never meant anything good. Frantically, I whipped my head around, searching. They weren't there.

Thank God Fang distracted me before I went into hysterics. "Angel is right. There are people here."

Right on cue, a bunch of people stepped out of the woods we had landed in. I gawked for a second before pulling myself together. Even for me, who was no stranger to the weird, these people looked like freaks. Every single one of them had vibrantly colored hair- even the brunettes' hair shone with highlights. In addition, they all wore pretty strange looking outfits. And, of course, they were exotically pretty.

The man who appeared to be the leader raised his voice and said something. It sounded like Japanese, which I had been hearing ever since I moved to Japan, but I had never learned anything other than, "More ramen please."

I saw Angel step forward to talk to them and quickly scanned the woods again for Nudge and Iggy, shook my head and looked again. Because I must have been missing something. Because I couldn't see them.

I turned my head slowly towards Angel and interrupted her pantomimed conversation. "Angel... Where are Iggy and Nudge?"

She looked down and I felt my heart go heavy. "I don't even know," she confessed. "But we ended up somewhere other than where Gazzy is. These are some of the natives," she gestured with her hand, "and they want to take us in for questioning."

"Heck no!" I spat out. "There is no way for them to take us anywhere we don't want to go." Or at least, that's what I wanted to say. What stopped me? Well, the observation of several _very_ pointy weapons hidden on their bodies, for one.

I relented. "Fine. Let's go."

Angel nodded and resumed her conversation with the weirdos. After much wild hand-waving, they came to an agreement and we began walking.

Hanabi eyed the strangers warily. They were utterly... _bizarre_. After having appeared out of nowhere and then seeming to not understand Japanese very well at all, the strangers had been taken into the custody of Konoha. Currently the eldest female was yelling about something and looking around rapidly. Was she searching for teammates of hers?

All of them were freakishly tall, making it difficult to tell how old they were, but if Hanabi had to guess, she would say that the older pair might be around twenty-ish and the young girl possibly fourteen. There was a certain strangeness about there physical appearances. It wasn't their hair color or any facial features- no, as a matter of fact, they looked almost too generic. However, the clothes the strangers were wearing were out of date, too much so to be an attempt for a retro look. Also, there was nowhere to hide weapons and no hitai-ate.

"Hey Hanabi!" Her sensei said to her. "Wake up. We need to pick up the pace."

As the genin team started running, she noticed with detached interest that the intruders had no trouble keeping up. Ah well. Another strike against them.

I kept on swinging my head around, amazed by the buildings around me. My jaw was hanging slack and I was positive that I looked exactly like a fish.

"Fish much?" Fang muttered, smirking at me.

"Oh, shut up." I grinned. My bad mood from earlier was vanishing and now that I had a sense of purpose, everything was looking good.

_But what about the..._ a nagging little voice hissed. I shoved it away. Man, is it good to make the voices in your head stop for once or what?

The architecture of this small village was very unique. Large buildings rose seven or even more stories high and each and every one of them had some sort of bulbous or spiral shape. All of them were painted bright, lively colors.

Suddenly a heavenly aroma drifted a cross my path. I froze. "Max?" I heard Angel say worriedly. "Are you alright?"

I broke into a grin. "I am better than alright. I have RAMEN." Quicker than Angel could ever hope to catch me, I broke into a sprint and headed for the ramen stand.

I could hear Angel apologizing profusely, and maybe this would cause problems later, but right now I didn't care. I wanted ramen.

I plopped onto a stool beside a short blond haired kid and conveyed my desire with a short round of charades and a bunch of half-finished sentences. A steaming bowl of miso ramen was soon deposited in front of me. I dug in, eating like a pig. Hey, who would blame me? I needed around three thousand calories a day and I hadn't eaten at all yet.

I was almost done with my bowl when they caught up with me. Rolling my eyes, I let myself be dragged to an enormous tower by the much put-upon guards.

When I got there I saw Fang and Angel already present. Catching my eye, Fang glared daggers at me, frustration showing clearly on his face. Uh oh. If you could see Fang's emotions, then I was screwed.

The guards showed me a chair that I figured I was supposed to sit in. Fidgeting, I listened to the busty blond sitting behind the desk talk to the guards.

"Angel?" I whispered. "What are they talking about, sweetie?"

She frowned, a little crease appearing between her eyebrows. "Well... it's kind of hard to tell, 'cause it's in a different language, but I think they're saying that we'll be in the custody of somebody for a while. Like a kind of probation? Then something about this being a good chance to learn responsibility and 'Naruto'."

The blond had stopped talking and was staring at us talking, curiosity filling her delicate features. Tilting her head back slightly, she called out; "Shizune!" then continued looking at us.

"Watashi no namae wa Tsunade desu," she told us. Angel translated, saying, "Her name is Tsunade."

The short blond guy I had seen at the ramen stand came into the room, almost _bouncing_ with good energy. Ugh. He cocked his head and looked at us, puzzled, then said something to Tsunade.

Ignoring him, she pointed and said, "Naruto" very slowly and clearly, enunciating crisply. After her introduction, Tsunade turned and started talking to him in rapid-fire Japanese. Meanwhile, I took a closer look at the guy.

He was fairly short, by bird kid standards, but was probably around average height for a human. Like _all_ of the freaking people here, he was good looking, with tanned skin, gravity-defying hair, and sharp, bright eyes that were a dark blue color. The strangest thing about him was the whisker marks on his cheeks. Was he a mutant too?

Finished talking to Tsunade, he spun on his heel and walked out the door, obviously intending for us to follow him. As we did so, Angel explained, "He's a part of their security system, like a policeman or whatever. Tsunade-san wants him to observe us for a month and teach us Japanese."

When we reached Naruto's house, I gaped in out right horror. While obviously neglected, it was an absolute sty, filled with dirty clothing, old food, and some stuff- Wait, was that sock _moving?_

Actually, it reminded me a lot of our house in Colorado in that respect...

The walls were an ugly, aged, off-white color, and the windows were cracked. Outside the scenery was a concrete mess; the epitome of human influence. All in all, after the magnificence of the buildings we had seen coming on, it looked like Naruto was living in the worst part of town possible.

He plopped down on the floor and spread his arms in a grand gesture, then started pointing at stuff and talking. By dinner time I had learned the various forms of 'I' and the names of a couple household items, thanks mostly to Fang and Angel's help.

The month couldn't pass nearly fast enough. I eventually knew enough Japanese to hold a short conversation and found out that Naruto was a freaking _ninja._ It turned out that the career of choice in this world was ninja-hood- oops, I mean 'being a shinobi.'

Naruto had been pulled out of work because he had recently been severely injured. As a result, some of his friends stopped by to see how he was doing, including Haruno Sakura and, in her wake, Uchiha Sasuke.

The three of them had been friends since they were twelve, and were hysterical to watch interact. Naruto would annoy Sasuke, Sasuke would insult him, and Sakura would punch some sense into both of them.

Angel had Sakura wrapped around her little finger. I might have felt kind of jealous once, but here it was just another advantage.

Finally, probation month ended and we were brought back in front of Tsunade. I nervously curled and uncurled my fingers, and in my peripheral vision, I saw Fang shifting his weight, which was probably as close to admitting he was nervous as Fang would get.

Tsunade started off by talking to Naruto about our behavior and whether or not we had betrayed suspicious behavior. Apparently, in a shinobi village it was useless doing these things in private because everyone knew how to eavesdrop.

Tsunade gave us her seal of approval, and then asked us the big question, "Do you want to become shinobi of Konohagakure?"

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the work of Masashi Kishimoto, James Patterson, or Kubo Tite.

Sorry this chapter is so choppy. I'm trying to make it realistic by not having the flock speak Japanese fluently, while remembering to have them interact. It's really hard! However, next chapter I will try to raise more doubts about their origins. Or, uh, wait... Sorry, in chapter _three_. Next chapter we get to see how Iggy and Nudge are doing, as well as _what the heck Gazzy has been doing this entiire time._ Yeah. Stay tuned.

On an unrelated note, my little counter thingy says that people from Hungary and Australia have been reading this. That is REALLY awesome. Thanks! Also thanks to the TWO people who actually reviewed. Sorry you have to pick up the slack.

Tell me what you think! Review!!!

Sincerely,

Solitaire Alliteration


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